Product Details

• Actors: Joyce DiDonato, Juan Diego Florez, Pietro Spagnoli, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Alessandro Corbelli
• Directors: Antonio Pappano, Moshe Leiser, Patrice Caurier
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Virgin Classics
• DVD Release Date: April 20, 2010
• Run Time: 150 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0039I1HN4
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #43,024 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

The cast of this Barbiere, taken from performances in July 2009
at the London s Royal Opera House, could quite simply not be
bettered today: dazzling Virgin Classics artist Joyce DiDonato
in her signature role of Rosina; Juan Diego Flórez; the world s
reigning bel canto tenor; Simon Keenlyside, a baritone whose
voice combines beauty and virility and whose stage characterizations
are almost alarmingly acute; Alessandro Corbelli, a buffo
baritone who brings subtlety and edge to the traditional comic
antics, and Ferruccio Furlanetto, who demonstrates that a
supreme interpreter of Verdi s tortured King Phillip can also
have a sense of humor. Conducting is the Royal Opera s Music
Director, Antonio Pappano, who has led many complete operas
for EMI Classics and who though born in London literally
has the Italian style in his blood.

This DVD sees Joyce DiDonato perform her role in a wheelchair
a story that has occupied international headlines. Joyce
brought literal meaning to the old theatrical motto Break a
leg. After she broke her fibula in an earlier show Joyce was
determined to finish her commitment. The good-spirited diva
was re-staged into the production to allow for the additional
challenges that come when a leading lady in a lively physical
role must wheel around the other performers.

Joyce posted the following on her blog post-performance: Well,
without a doubt, last night was one of the most memorable, exciting
nights in my life. I suppose that makes two in a row for me. I arrived
at the theater around 4:30 and was introduced to my new co-star: a
beautiful, sleek Moonlite Breezy Wheelchair.

The DVD bonus features include an interview with Joyce on her
stage accident and subsequent wheelchair performances.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "Close, but no cigar", June 10, 2010

By 

Walter Phelps "Booster for the Bard" (Vacaville, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rossini: Il Barbiere Di Siviglia (DVD)

A minority report, to be sure: for a long time,directors who would stage "The Marriage of Figaro" with the utmost sensitivity have felt free to make its Beaumarchais predecessor,"The Barber of Seville" into a farrago of sight gags, pratfalls, slapstick and any other device to set the groundlings in a roar. This is particularly disappointing in the present instance because the elements for somegthing better were present in abundance: after an extraordinary reading of the overture, the curtain rises on a magical setting...and almoost immediately things begin to go downhill. Joyce DiDonato (demonstrating incredible pluck singing from a wheelchair) and Juan Diego Flores are superb singers but show little involvement in the characters they play. Ferruccio Furlanetto spends an awful lot of energy in "La calunnia" climbing all over Bartolo, bringing down the house, but missing all the real rascality of the part. Why we needed to see Berta, drunk, dismantling the piano during the storm scene to coincide with the thunderclaps is a mystery. Rossini has fallen into the hands of the Dirigenten. For a production that is a truly Mozartean pre4decessor to any "Marriage of Figaro", try the Schwetzingen production from the 1980s with Gino Quilico, Cecilia Bartoli leading a real ensemble: stylish, beautifully sung with believable characterizations and...incredibly funny.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dream cast, April 25, 2010

By 

libriarsque (Texas) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Rossini: Il Barbiere Di Siviglia (DVD)

You really can't get much better. Luxury casting in every role, and all the singers deliver memorable performances in different ways. DiDonato, in this her second Barbiere video, possessing a technique that is both reliable and adaptable to any situation, again blesses us with some stunning fireworks as well as musicality. Her intelligence shines through every moment she is on the stage (in a wheelchair). Florez is his usual "bel" canto self, elegant, stylish, a beacon to all lyric tenors everywhere. Spagnoli, who was called in to replace an ailing Simon Keenlyside, is sturdy-voiced and charming in the title role. Corbelli, in only his third staged outing as Bartolo (his first on video, and a CD in 1993), once more opts for a more human and less buffoonish characterization (witness his recent video of Magnifico from the Met), amazing in his delivery of text and still in possession of considerable vocal prowess. Furlanetto, the Don Basilio, though vocally a bit rough, gives us one of the most memorable physical perfomances of "La calunnia" in recent memory--the directors used the vast difference in his and Corbelli's heights to great comedic advantage.

The production is bright and inventive and a bit improvisatory, as everyone had to work around DiDonato's injury. She spends most of her time on the apron of the stage, in front of the deck, but she maneuvers her wheelchair very much in character, and her castmates are extremely solicitous of her. I don't mind at all the simplicity of the set, as the lighting cues more than make up for it. It reminds me a bit of a child's pop-up book, with lots of pinks, robin's egg blues, and apple greens, panels that slide open, and chairs that come up out of the floor. The costumes are wonderfully witty, and I love Bartolo's exaggerated "comb-over."

Perhaps the greatest joy for me, besides the singing, is the use and delivery of the Italian language, particularly by the native speakers in the cast. The recits (recitatives) come alive in a way that they seldom do with non-natives. You ain't heard recits till you've heard them sung by great Italian singing actors, and that's the truth! Young singers, listen and learn! (Older singers, too, for that matter.)

Buy this DVD; trust me, you won't be sorry. DiDonato's broken leg is one reason it has already become the stuff of operatic legend, but that certainly isn't the only reason.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Almost perfect... but no cigar, June 13, 2010

By 

Shimon Schieber (Rishon le Zion, Israel) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rossini: Il Barbiere Di Siviglia (DVD)

Almost all the voices are gorgeous. Especially DiDonato's, and we all applaud her for her pluck. However, Rosina should not be wheelchair bound, and so the dvd is a curiosity, for collectors, just like a stamp printed upside down and in a limited edition.
Pietro Spagnoli is very nice but with a "white voice"- devoid of colour and depth. He, the center role, is completely upstaged by Florez, DiDonato and Corbelli, the best Dr. Bartolo since good old Capecchi.
Furlanetto's growls are also nice but his "La Calunnia" has a lot of motion but little umph. Rhys- Davies as Bertha is simply exquisite!
Many of my friends think Pappano is below par here. Not in my book.
If you have already a Barbiere DVD on your shelves, BUY this one as a best second.